The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would once again waive sanctions against Iran's banking and oil industries in line with the 2015 nuclear deal, but signaled that it would take a tougher stance towards enforcing the deal's implementation.

The announcement of the waiver came hours after the United States Treasury Department imposed new non-nuclear sanctions against a number of businesses and individuals for helping Iran's ballistic missile program and launching cyber-attacks against the U.S.

"The new sanctions on non-nuclear matters signal President Trump’s determination to confront Tehran over actions the United States considers destabilizing to the region and in defiance of the intent of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal," The Washington Postreported.

Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said that Trump might decertify Iran's compliance with the deal on grounds that it was not in the national security interests of the U.S.

Last week, Eli Lake of Bloomberg View suggested that Trump could use the coming weeks to convince European allies---the United Kingdom, France and Germany---to go along with renegotiating the deal to strengthen its weaknesses.

The Associated Press reported earlier Thursday that Trump could possibly opt to decertify and stay in the deal, and then threaten to re-impose secondary sanctions on European and other banks forcing them to choose between doing business with Iran or being cut off from the U.S. banking system.

Later, Foreign Policyobtained a memo circulating around Washington that mapped out such a plan.

The anti-Israel boycott bill currently being considered by Congress would prohibit individuals and organizations to "boycott Israel at the behest of international governmental organizations," and would not affect a person's ability to criticize Israel, wrote two former Democratic administration officials in an op-ed published Tuesday in The Washington Post.

Jonathan Greenblatt, a former assistant to President Barack Obama and currently CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, and Stuart Eisenstat, a former domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter, asserted that the Israel Anti-Boycott Act is a necessary upgrade to legislation passed in 1977 targeting the Arab League boycott of Israel. As a member of the Carter administration, Eisenstat helped draft the earlier legislation.

The new bill, they wrote, would target boycotts of Israel initiated by organizations "such as the United Nations or even the European Union, that might parallel the Arab League’s original 'blacklist' of companies doing business with Israel, which was the heart of its boycott."

Updating the legislation is especially necessary now as the United Nations Human Rights Council just passed a resolution to create a database of companies doing business or have relationships with those in the West Bank, with the aim of establishing a boycott that targets Israel. The UN's high commissioner for human rights "appears determined" to implement the resolution, which would "create a new 'blacklist' that could subject American individuals and companies to discrimination, yet again, for simply doing business with Israel."

An unprecedented study of anti-Semitism conducted by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) in Britain revealed that one in three citizens holds at least one anti-Semitic attitude, and showed an "unambiguous" link between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, The Times of Israelreported Tuesday.

More than 4,000 members of the public contributed to the study in late 2016 and early this year, making it the largest and most detailed survey of attitudes towards Jews and Israel ever carried out in the country.

Collectively, around 30% of the adult British population showed “antisemitic attitudes at different intensities,” the report found.

But the report also clarified that views, which researchers described as “hardcore anti-Semitic,” are harbored by no more than 2.4% of the British public. Around 70% of the population “do not entertain any antisemitic ideas or view at all.”

The study sought, for the first time in Britain, to test the relationship between anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel and established an “unambiguous” link.

“A majority of those who hold anti-Israel attitudes do not espouse any anti-Semitic attitudes, but a significant minority of those who hold anti-Israel attitudes hold them alongside anti-Semitic attitudes,” the report stated.

Dave Rich, deputy director of communications at the Community Security Trust, which supported the survey, highlighted the importance of the study. “The finding that people who are strongly anti-Israel are also more likely to be anti-Semitic might seem obvious to some, but this is the first time it has been statistically proven,” he said.

Technion, Hyundai to Partner in Automotive Technology Incubator

Israel is fast becoming a powerhouse in the development of advanced automotive technology. And international companies and governmental bodies are taking notice.

The latest partnership to be announced is between the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

The Technion will act as the bridge between Hyundai Motor and Israel’s growing number of emerging automotive-tech companies.

“By identifying, nurturing and boosting the work of the best startups, we plan to accelerate our global leadership in future mobility,” Tae-won Lim, head of the Technology Innovation Center at Hyundai Motor, said.

Hyundai laid the groundwork for the new collaboration with the opening of the Technology Innovation Center in February 2017.

“Israel is known around the world for the quality of its startups, so with Technion and KAIST’s combined expertise, Hyundai Motor will be well placed to lead the development of the next generation of automotive technology,” Lim added.

Technion President Prof. Peretz Lavie concurred. We are now in the midst of the “fourth industrial revolution,” he said, one that is “fast changing the automotive industry, bringing with it unique opportunities for those who are bold enough to embrace them.”

Hyundai sold nearly 5 million vehicles globally in 2016 and employs 110,000 people.